SHORT-READ / COMMENT & ANALYSIS: A number of recent IrishCycle.com articles have featured or made reference to protected junction, both the tried and test Dutch design and the experimental Dublin design — this image from Limerick Cycle Design explains the main difference:
And here's an animation of one laid over the other. The difference all revolves around the pedestrian crossing – should pedestrians cross both cycle track and carriageway in a single stage or cross the cycle tracks first and then cross the carriageway separately? pic.twitter.com/jv3BGP1tCL
— Limerick Cycle Design (@LkCycleDesign) March 15, 2021
Here’s a glimpse of the first Dublin-style design in action which this website reported on last week:
Cyclists go straight while drivers turn left. Drivers turning left are supposed to yield but this didn't always happen. So I was nearly struck and beeped at in the middle of the junction on the way home. pic.twitter.com/XEQl7e4pv6
— Feljin Jose (@Feljin_J) March 8, 2021
Probably the best explanation of how Dutch protected junctions work is provided by protectedintersection.com —
...That's the end of the article. Keep scrolling if you want to the comments, but IrishCycle.com *NEEDS* readers like you to keep it that way. It only requires a small percentage of readers to give a bit each month or every year to keep IrishCycle.com's journalism open to all. Thank you.
The key point is that Irish motorists when tuning left rarely check their blind spot. This running over cyclists. This happened at a roundabout near me, killing a cyclist. Dutch designs force the motorist to take a wider turn crossing the bike lane at right angles so you can clearly see a cyclist. The’Dublin’ design seems wrongheaded and poorly thought out.
Brilliant article. Sums up the entire case for protected junctions in one picture. There simply is no excuse for anything less.